Jewellery and personal advice

History of gold, part 1.

I will now be making my blog increasingly more jewellery orientated as this is the business which I do in addition to writing, and my day job of teaching EFL. Here is an article from last year which comes from my other blog, “jewelleryica”: http://jewelleryica.com/tag/jewelleryica/

This is the first in a series of articles on gold.

Gold is something which is present and which transcends time and place, something which is known to all culures and peoples in our often heavily divided word. It is of course more than just a mere metal as we shall see, but has even occupied quite an important place in our language and speech. In the English language we have phrases such as “a heart of gold”, referring to someone with a pure and generous personality, or a similar phrase “as good as gold”.

It is a bright shiny yellow colour and has become synonymous with a number of different things including quality, preciousness and importance. So what is it about gold that more than any other metal has earned it this place as the leading and most coveted metal in the world?

Gold, unlike other metals, is easy to use and craft in to different forms, and it comes in a state where it is virtually ready to be used unlik other metals which require additional processes. The other great quality that it has is that it does not corrode or rust or degenerate easily, it has a strength, a durability which adds to its grandeur as well as its sheer practicality. It is thought that originally the first gold that man used was that discovered in streams in the form of nuggets, and since those early times it has started to be mined more and more.

All the major ancient civilizations including the Romans, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese and others all had gold jewellery including their royal families.

Roman Gold jewellery

Gold mask of an ancient Egyptian pharoh.

Ancient Chinese golden bowl crafted carefully with intricate designs.

Gold was also used as a currency in the form of gold coins and the first usage of such coins for monetary purposes is attributed to the ancient Lydians around 700 BC.

An ancient Lydian gold coin.

Both its use for jewellery to beautify oneself and also as a currency for trading have continued to this day with the wearing of gold used through out the world and its use for monetary purposes in effect through out the globe.

World famous American actress, Cameron Diaz, wearing a gold ring.

Indian actress, Aishwarya Rai in traditional dress with gold jewellery.

Gold rings in China.

In the next article we will look at other aspects of gold including alternative uses for this material besides money and jewellery.